The Developing Mind

The development of childrenâs minds raises fundamental questions from how we are able to know about basic aspects of the world such as objects and actions to how we come to grasp mental states. The Developing Mind is the first book to critically introduce and examine philosophical questions concerning childrenâs cognitive development and to consider the implications of scientific breakthroughs for the philosophy of developmental psychology. The book explores central topics in developmental psychology from a philosophical perspective: children's awareness of objects and the question of âobject permanenceâ the nature and explanatory role of âcore knowledgeâ evidence for innate drivers of language children's knowledge of the relation between actions and goals puzzles about when infants first have awareness of other minds how social interaction explains the emergence of knowledge Throughout the book Stephen Butterfill draws on important case studies including experiments with children on objects and their interactions âfalse belief tasksâ and the process by which children come to see other people not just themselves as purposive agents. He shows how these questions can illuminate fundamental debates in philosophy of mind concerning the mindâs architecture the explanatory power of representation the social character of knowledge and the nature of metacognitive feelings. Additional features such as a glossary and extensive bibliographic references provide helpful tools for those coming to the subject for the first time. . Language: English